Its was one of those events which at a crucial stage in one's development arrive to challenge and stretch one to the limit of one's ability and beyond, so that thereafter one has a new standard by which to judge oneself.

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.

Mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys.

No matter how dark and hopeless a situation might seem, never stop praying.

When Satan knocks, I just send Christ to the door.

Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point.

What interests me is the surprising enormous extent to which most people accept the fate that's been given to them, and find some dignity.

I cannot start a story or chapter without knowing how it ends. Of course, it rarely ends that way.

I've always had a great fondness for English detective fiction such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.

Even the solitude, I've actually grown to quite like... I do like the feeling of getting into my little car, knowing for the next couple of hours I'll have only the roads, the big gray sky and my daydreams for company.

Memory is quite central for me. Part of it is that I like the actual texture of writing through memory.

When you become a parent, or a teacher, you turn into a manager of this whole system. You become the person controlling the bubble of innocence around a child, regulating it.

Sometimes I get so immersed in my own company, if I unexpectedly run into someone I know, it's a bit of a shock and takes me a while to adjust.

I want my words to survive translation.

You say you’re sure? Sure that you’re in love? How can you know it? You think love is so simple?

I started as a songwriter and wanted to be like Leonard Cohen. I've always seen my stories as enlarged songs.

What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint.

I have the feeling of this completely alternative person I should have become. There was another life that I might have had, but I’m having this one.

The problem, as I see it, is that you've been told and not told. You've been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way.